Court rejects Verizon claim that selling location data without consent is legal
20 comments
·September 11, 2025jimmySixDOF
Will this protection extend to automobile companies ? Mobile Apps ? Mobile OSs ? I have lost track of the number of leakage points for location data into the tarball of databrokers.
comex
Nope. The court is applying an old law that specifically applies to carriers providing "telecommunications services", no one else.
(Incidentally, even the term "telecommunications service" only encompasses voice call service, not mobile data or SMS. The FCC tried to reclassify Internet access as a telecommunications service during the Obama and Biden administrations, in order to get authority to impose net neutrality rules, but it was ultimately overturned in court.)
monksy
Assuming they'll lose this, they'll probably move to coercing the selling of your location data as "part of doing business with them." Sigh.
cwmoore
Retroactively assign all future data value to...the next president?
fn-mote
I like this part:
[denied because…] > Verizon had, and chose to forgo, the opportunity for a jury trial in federal court.
petertodd
That was probably a sound legal strategy. Selling location data without consent is obviously unethical behavior that should be illegal. A jury is more likely to rule on the basis of that; with a judge maybe there's a chance that a technicality in the law leads to a ruling in their favor.
Anyway, this practice should be criminalized with companies and their employees receiving criminal penalties like jail time.
kevin_thibedeau
It won't because the US government relies on third parties to funnel data into its panopticon as a constitutional side step.
thrwaway55
Replace employee with exec. An employee may need a job and can be coerced for reasons they don't control.
soulofmischief
That same position legitimizes basically all police brutality.
slowhadoken
I feel like a cop looking at this company’s behavior. “If you’re not guilty why are you acting guilty, Verizon?”
electric_muse
Carriers have been selling this stuff forever. The only surprise is that they were arrogant enough to argue it was outright legal rather than hiding behind “user consent” fine print.
The bigger issue is that every telecom treats location data as an asset class. If you think a court ruling will make them suddenly respect privacy, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. They’ll just bury consent deeper in the UX until it looks indistinguishable from compliance.
sidcool
Thanks court.
malux85
How much did they make selling the data?
If it's greater than the fine, and they suffer no other consequences (e.g. nobody goes to jail) then the fine is just cost-of-business.
The fine must be greater than what they made, AND some executives or management needs to be held responsible - at least fired.
Otherwise it will just keep happening.
tonyhart7
even with user consent, they should ban it period
Workaccount2
Good.
Now apply it to Flock.
SilverElfin
Great. Now jail the executives, pierce the veil, seize their assets.
The courts have decided that Verizon selling location data without consent is illegal but I'd be willing to bet that the courts haven't decided that it should be unprofitable.
I'd be surprised if Verizon and the other companies haven't made more than enough by breaking the law back in 2018 to rake in a nice profit profit even after the fines they're trying to weasel out of paying now.
I have no doubt that they're still selling our data one way or another anyway. We know for a fact that they've never stopped selling data to to law enforcement, they just require a rubber stamped court order/subpoena to do it.